Hanoi’s ‘train street’ cafés reopen after three-year hiatus
Cafés packed closely along a picturesque single-line train track in Hanoi have reopened after a long Covid shutdown, feeding hopes that the area will again lure visitors to what was once a tourist hotspot.
The Hanoi municipal government and other authorities have tacitly approved the reopening to promote local tourism hit by the pandemic.
With an increase in tourists along “train street”, the area is starting to revive after a roughly three-year hiatus.
“This place is wonderful. I wanted to come here after seeing it on social media,” said Romain, a 27-year-old French resident of Hong Kong.
Visitors can stroll along the track when no trains are near as Romain did, taking selfies with his smartphone.
Cafés began to open along the track around 2017, according to Vietnamese media. The 300-metre-long stretch has many quaint old houses and businesses that were constructed more than 100 years ago when Vietnam was a French colony.
Since then, the landscape drastically changed as residents turned their homes into fashionable cafés and souvenir shops.
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The businesses are set only about 1 metre away from the track and there are no fences or guardrails. After photos of the area began to appear on social media, tourists began to flock to the more than 20 establishments. Now, many local tours include a stop here.
After Covid hit in 2019, authorities told the businesses to halt operations. As local and foreign tourism dried up, many cafés were forced to shutter their businesses for an indefinite period or for good.
But things have changed after Vietnam reopened for international tourism in mid-March for the first time in about two years. Covid testing requirements for arrivals to Vietnam were subsequently removed, and as overseas travellers started to appear around April, the cafés slowly reopened.
The number of trains has dropped to about five per weekday as a result of the health crisis, with few rarely passing during the day. In addition, café owners have become more safety conscious. The Hanoi city office and other authorities are now allowing visitors to enter the area, locals confirmed.
Shortly after 9am in late August, café operators informed customers through loudspeakers to get off the track five minutes before a train was due.
As it rumbled past, tourists pulled out their smartphones and began furiously snapping away. Cafés become packed when a train is scheduled.
The number of tourists — especially those from the US and Europe — has increased since June, said Nguyen Thi Nguyet, a 53-year-old café owner who has lived in the area for more than 30 years. She no longer needs to sell vegetables and fruit outside the area and can “finally” do business at her home, she said.
Hanoi is short on sightseeing resources compared with Da Nang, a tourist-orientated city in central Vietnam, and the southern commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City. So there is no guarantee that tourists will return to Hanoi even when the Covid crisis ends.
Still, cafés like these can play a role in helping Vietnam ramp up its tourism industry.
A version of this article was first published by Nikkei Asia on September 11 2022. ©2022 Nikkei Inc. All rights reserved
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